Growing up with an older brother of four years i had the privilege of being shown the way in terms of good music! Tim listened to great stuff that inevitably i would pick up on as it was played most of the time in the house or out and about. I can remember Tims first cassette player, it was given to him by our Uncle Clive who at the time was living in the top floor flat of our family home in St Peters, Thanet. It was a typically basic thing with one speaker and a record button, standard technology for the time but a real bonus to have something like that when we were that age. I can remember Tim playing Depeche Mode songs (Just Can't Get Enough etc..) and Duran Duran (Planet Earth etc..). Pretty cool for the day!! From then on we both shared pretty much the same taste and interests in music. Not always agreeing with each other, Tim had a thing for Erasure, which i never really got! We would often be responsible for sharing something new with the other and then that would become a focus for a while until something new came along. I was heavily into New Order (still am) after listening to Tim playing the original Blue Monday on 12 inch (i've still got it somewhere!) and then the album 'Substance'. I remember Tim getting into 'TheThe' in a big way after listening to me playing it all of the time. When I was at an age where we could go out to pubs and clubs together, we would often get home and watch music videos together with other mates (VHS tapes. I remember we had early house music, Depeche Mode, Duran Duran, Erasure, Stone Roses, Inspiral Carpets etc... Great times. Over the years we went to a few gigs together: - Inspiral Carpets at Manchester Academy (Tim also saw them at the Manchester G-Mex in the 90's) - Dire Straits at Wembley Arena - Linkin Park at Manchester Arena - Depeche Mode at Manchester Arena - Oasis at Heaton Park - Embrace at Manchester Apollo - Editors at Manchester Academy - Radiohead at Manchester Arena - Stereophonics at Manchester Arena If i can remember anymore, i'll add them in! I can remember Tim buying his first 'ghetto blaster' from Dixons in Ramsgate, it must have been the late 80's. This was back when walking around with a massive stereo attached to your arm playing loud music was seen as relatively cool! I think the player even had twin cassette decks and a 3 way grapic equaliser! Awesome! And then during Tims Guld War deployment he had a blast buying pirated copies on cassette. He cam back with a holdall full of albums that cost him about 40p each!! All in all, i can listen to most of my music collection and place a time and event that me and my bro were at or doing. It's incredibl how powerful music can be in remembering and maintaining someone in your mind. Happy times and sad times alike, it's all linked. Cheers bro for educating me and sharing, it was a blast. This last year 2 albums have been released i know we would both be listening to, one from Editors and recently one from Embrace. Even the Gallaghers are on about reforming Oasis for one last set of gigs, would we have gone to those? Probably! And one that Tim will definately miss is that the Inspirals are releasing a new album this year. Gutted i wont be able to share that with you but rest assured i'll be thinking of my bro and the discussions we would have had when it comes out and i get my first listen!